BOULDER — Minutes after Colorado’s fourth consecutive loss Thursday night, Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle said he was not about to hang his head.

And he didn’t want his team to do that either.

“Our guys can’t let this get them down,” Boyle said.

Colorado (9-9, 2-4 Pac-12) lost a “heart breaker,” as Boyle put it, when Washington junior guard Andrew Andrews bagged a 15-foot jump shot in the final second for a 52-50 Huskies victory in front of 9,653 at the Coors Events Center.

The winning play was set up after Colorado sophomore guard Jaron Hopkins lost control of the ball and committed a turnover near the basket with 34 seconds remaining.

Colorado, which was expected to be a contender this season in the Pac-12 standings, once again couldn’t play with a full deck. Junior center Josh Scott (back spasms) missed his third consecutive game, and junior forward Xavier Johnson was serving a one-game suspension by the team for an off-court issue after having missed the two prior games with an ankle sprain.

Making matters worse Thursday night, the team’s top scorer and other member of CU’s “big three,” senior guard Askia Booker, sat out 11 minutes of the first half with foul trouble and never found a rhythm. He hit just 2-of-13 from the field and finished with five points, almost a dozen below his season average.

Boyle said his players were were both sad and angry in the locker room following the game. But he told them they also should view it as a positive, considering they had a chance to defeat a talented Huskies squad (14-4, 3-3) while being shorthanded.

“We didn’t take care of the ball well enough (12 turnovers against Washington’s 2-3 zone) and we didn’t shoot well enough (31.7 percent) to beat that team,” Boyle said. “But I liked our guy’s fight. I liked our effort.

“We have to bear defeat without losing heart,” Boyle added. “That’s what this group is being tested with. We’re being tested. Our toughness is being tested. Our mental fortitude is being tested. We have to come tomorrow and practice and continue to improve.”

Colorado hosts Washington State at 6 p.m. Saturday.

CU’s top four scorers Thursday night are all sophomores, led by Hopkins (11 points) and forward Wesley Gordon, who recorded a double-double with 10 points and a career-best 17 rebounds.

“I think you’re seeing some guys grow up and get some experience,” Boyle said. “That’s going to help us in the long run. But in the short run, it’s no fun.”

Colorado has reached the NCAA Tournament three consecutive years so being .500 at this stage is not what anybody envisioned. Boyle said his team is handling the adversity as well as could be expected.

“You see how they’re playing; there’s no quit in them,” Boyle said. “We’re just coming up a little bit short. We’re a little snakebit right now. We have to learn and we have to improve. That’s what we have to focus on.”

Washington’s Cory Littleton falls on Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau after Liufau was sacked by Washington’s Danny Shelton in the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013, in Seattle. (Ted S. Warren, The Associated Press)

Washington quarterback Cyler Miles — The sophomore from Centennial, Colo., who played high school football at Mullen, returns to his home state and will have family and friends in the stands. Sometimes that emotion elevates an athlete’s performance, other times it becomes a distraction or he “tries too hard” and forces things.

In 2012 as a high school senior, Liufau was ranked as the No. 6 overall player in the state of Washington by SuperPrep. Grayson was a senior in 2009 (he grayshirted prior to enrolling at CSU) and was ranked as the No. 17 overall player in the state by Rivals.com.

Liufau suited up for the 2013 Rocky Mountain Showdown as a true freshman but did not play in the game.

Grayson and Liufau participated during the summer in the Manning Passing Academy.

“(Grayson) is a really good guy,” Liufau said. “I talked to him a little bit. He’s a really good guy.”

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FORT COLLINS — Colorado State is back into the regular-season mode, tightening up on the amount of time scribes are allowed to be on the fields to watch practice. So after watching the start of practice, we’re back in the Moby Arena media room for a bit until we’re allowed back in when they’re done.

That’s typical and I’m not complaining, and in fact harken back to arguing to Denver Nuggets coach Doug Moe that he needed to close practice and having him respond: “If I have to watch this —-, you do too.” That was when closing practices, thanks to Pat Riley, was starting to become more popular and our writers’ association (I’m not sure why) was complaining about it to the league.

Anyway, I have time for a few musings about the Rams as Rocky Mountain Showdown week opens: Read more…

Kenneth Crawley, left, is congratulated by teammate Ryan Severson after making a tackle during the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Friday. (Jeremy Papasso, The Daily Camera)

BOULDER — Although Colorado junior Ken Crawley is a two-year starter, the native of Washington, D.C., entered August drills sharing the top spot on the depth chart at right cornerback with a newcomer, junior-college transfer Ahkello Witherspoon.

Colorado has not released an updated depth chart, but judging from comments made by coach Mike MacIntyre, it appears Crawley has done his part.

“Kenneth has improved a lot,” MacIntyre said Thursday. “He makes more plays on the ball. He is playing with more confidence. He’s more physical. I’m excited about what he’s doing.

According to Rivals.com affiliate GoldandGreenNews.com, the Colorado State football program has received an oral commitment from Frank Umu, a senior defensive tackle at Heritage High School in Littleton.

Umu is listed at 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds. He is rates two stars (out of five) by Rivals.com and also received offers from Eastern Washington and Weber State.

Umu becomes fifth known commitment to Colorado State for the current recruiting cycle. National signing day is Feb. 4.

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My story based on a Monday interview with Colorado State University president Tony Frank is in the Tuesday paper and online.

Much of what he said in the half-hour discussion didn’t make the story, and here are some of his additional comments, either amplifying on what did make the story or on other subjects:

On what CSU could do if the school, as is likely, doesn’t meet the goal to raise $110 million in seed money for a new stadium by October:

“There are going to be people who argue that, well, this means a very simple solution – we go back and we fix up Hughes. I don’t think the solution is that simple. It’s a complex topic. If you wanted to do the bare minimum with Hughes – and we’ve run these numbers ourselves and had them checked by an independent firm – you’re looking at $30 million for sewers, electric and minimal safety concrete repair.”

On why that money would have to come from the general fund:

“That’s the paradox of this whole thing. There’s no other place, if you can’t issue revenue bonds and you don’t have donor funds, you’ll issue general obligation bonds, which are in this day and age tuition-backed. That’s the conundrum. Apparently I didn’t do a great job of communicating this in the process, but that was the big advantage of the issue we proposed. Did it have risks, sure, everything has somewhat of a risk. But there was the possibility that if we did it that way, we wouldn’t impact fees, general fund, tuition. If we go back and say, well, we didn’t get there, we have to fix up Hughes and stay where we’re at, we will. That’s $30 million of general fund.”Read more…

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The Colorado Buffaloes will take on DePaul in the first round of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic on Dec. 22 in Honolulu.

The Buffaloes will play the Blue Demons at 2:30 p.m. at the Stan Sheriff Center. The game will be televised on ESPNU. The eight-team tournament, which takes place Dec. 22-25, is entering its sixth year.

It will be the second-ever match between the two teams and the first in 74 years when CU won 50-37 in the NIT semifinal in 1940.

Other teams in the tournament include George Washington, Hawaii, Loyola Marymount, Ohio, Nebraska and Wichita State.

A popular topic during Colorado State’s interviews at the recent Mountain West football media days was asking the Rams if there is any carryover from their come-from-behind victory over Washington State last December at the New Mexico Bowl.

“Our team got a taste of (bowl season) last year and we’re all hungry and have momentum to do it again,” CSU senior linebacker Aaron Davis said.

“It’s good to be able to show the young guys coming in that the end result is wins if we prepare,” Davis added. “When they get homesick and tired, we can tell them that it will all be worth it at the end. We want to have that feeling again that we had at the end of last season.”

Said CSU coach Jim McElwain: “You hope after (the bowl victory), guys ill want to feast at the buffet table again. I’m not sure we’ll be able to measure (the effects of that postseason win) in the short term. I’ll be curious five, six, seven, eight years down the road to see because that could be a turning point in a program’s development. I don’t know if it will be or not.”

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Marines shaking hands before the game on Guadalcanal. All-Americans Dave Schreiner (Wisconsin) and Tony Butkovich (Purdue). Both were killed in action less than six months later on Okinawa. Photo courtesy Schreiner family

ORIGINAL RUN DATE: NOVEMBER 3, 2003

WAR GAMERS
Denver-raised Bus Bergman was among
U.S. Marines who went from
Guadalcanal football to Okinawa valor

By Terry Frei
Denver Post Sports Writer

GRAND JUNCTION – Wearing shorts, T-shirts and boot-like field shoes on Christmas Eve 1944, U.S. Marine lieutenants Walter “Bus” Bergman and George Murphy warmed up with the 29th Regiment’s football team on Guadalcanal, the battle-scarred island in the South Pacific.

The tentmates and buddies had been college team captains during their senior seasons – Murphy in 1942 at Notre Dame, Bergman in 1941 at Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Fort Collins. They were about to play with and against many other college stars in the Sixth Marine Division’s “Football Classic.”

Among the military men ringing the field, the frenetic wagering continued. Bergman and Murphy knew that if the 29th lost to the opposing 4th Regiment, many of their friends would have lighter wallets, or have to make good on IOUs.

Pressure?

Not compared to what was ahead.

They knew that if they survived the island fighting in the Pacific theater, they would consider themselves fortunate. For the rest of their lives.

From one year to the next, the “Greatest Generation” dwindles. From one year to the next, Bus Bergman loses more Marine friends.

Bergman has attended many reunions, including those tied to his student-athlete days, and also to his highly successful coaching career in Colorado. But when the men of the Sixth Marine Division Association hold conventions, look one another up in their travels, or open and read Christmas cards with “Semper Fi” under the signatures, the resummoned emotions are powerful. It is as if they again are young, slim and elite fighting men. Marines who served in the same platoons or companies, and were together when comrades fell in the Battle of Okinawa, have the strongest bonds.

“They say certain guys are heroes because they did this and that,” Bergman, 83, said recently in his Grand Junction home. “I say the heroes are those guys who never came back. I’ve thought about that a lot. I think about the 60 or 70 extra years I got on them. I know I was lucky.”

Bergman for years didn’t volunteer much information about his combat experiences, even to his children – Judy Black of Washington, Walter Jr. of Grand Junction and Jane Norton of Englewood, elected Colorado’s lieutenant governor in 2002. His wife, Elinor, also a Denver native, at times is compelled to point out things Bus neglects to mention.

Little things, such as the citation that accompanied his Bronze Star.

Eagles no match for Marines

Raised near the original Elitch Gardens in northwest Denver, Bergman was a three-sport star at Denver’s North High School. At Colorado A&M, he earned 10 letters in football, basketball and baseball, and also was student body president.

In February 1942, Bergman and Aggies teammate Red Eastlack drove to Denver to enlist in the Marines. The Marines’ preference was for upperclassmen to stay in college long enough to graduate. To publicize the officer training program, the Marine brass had the star athletes “sworn in” a second time at midcourt during halftime of an A&M-Wyoming basketball game. Bergman and Eastlack were playing for the Aggies in Fort Collins, so they toweled off the sweat and raised their right hands.

As he finished his classes, Bergman didn’t respond to an eye-popping $140-a-game contract sent by the Philadelphia Eagles. After receiving his degree, he went to boot camp and Officer Candidates School, then joined the 29th Regiment at Camp Lejeune, N.C. By August 1944, he was on Guadalcanal, the island in the Solomon Islands chain taken by U.S. forces in late 1942. There, the 29th Regiment became part of the newly formed Sixth Marine Division.

Bergman, George Murphy and former Boston University tackle Dave Mears were the platoon leaders in D Company of the 29th Regiment’s 2nd Battalion. The three lieutenants shared a tent, trained and waited.

“We built our own shower at the back of the tent with a 55-gallon drum,” Mears, a retired CPA, said recently from his home in Essex, Mass. “We got a shower head someplace, and we were all set. We were living high!

“Bus was a very easygoing person and very friendly, but when it came to doing his job, he was pretty serious. George was more serious than either of us, though. At the time, he was married and his wife had just had a baby. So he was further ahead than us that way.”

Looming over the Marines was the likelihood that they soon would be fighting.

“We didn’t know where we were going,” Bergman said. “But we knew it was going to be close to the (Japanese) mainland. Football and little things kept us away from all that talk. Plus, we spent a lot of time in that tent censoring the mail.”

He laughed.

“Marines had girlfriends all over the world, and they wrote to all of ’em. We had to read it, and we were supposed to cut things out, but nobody really said anything we had to worry about that way.”

One of the makeshift programs from the Marines’ game. Gametime was changed after publication to early morning to avoid the worst heat and the name of the field was misspelled.

After several pickup games on Guadalcanal, and many beer-fueled debates among Marines about which regiment had the best players, the “Football Classic” on Christmas Eve was scheduled. Organizers mimeographed rosters and lined up a public-address system, radio announcers, regimental bands and volunteer game officials. The field was the 29th’s parade ground, which had as much coral and gravel fragments as dirt, and no grass. It was christened Pritchard Field after Cpl. Thomas Pritchard, a member of a demolition squad killed in a demonstration gone array shortly before the game.

Crowd estimates ranged from 2,500 to 10,000. With no bleachers, Marines scrambled to stake out vantage points.

Maj. Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., the Sixth Division’s commander, diplomatically watched the first half on one side of the field, then switched for the second half.

Former college standouts George Murphy of Notre Dame, Dave Mears of Boston U., and Denver native Bus Bergman of Colorado State/A&M as Marine tentmates. All three played for the 29th Regiment in the Marines’ Christmas Eve game on Guadalcanal. One would be among the 12 players from the game to die in battle on Okinawa.Photo courtesy Bergman family

Bergman started in the 29th’s backfield, lining up with halfback Bud Seelinger, formerly of Wisconsin; fullback Tony Butkovich, the nation’s leading rusher in 1943 at Purdue and the Cleveland Rams’ No. 1 draft choice in 1944; and quarterback Frank Callen, from St. Mary’s of California. Murphy was one end and player-coach Chuck Behan, formerly of the Detroit Lions, was the other. Behan captained the 29th Regiment squad. The 4th Regiment team captain was Dave Schreiner, a two-time All-American at Wisconsin and winner of the Chicago Tribune’s Silver Football as the Big Ten’s most valuable player in 1942.

The 4th Regiment’s backfield included quarterback Bob Spicer, a sergeant from Leavenworth, Kan., who had played guard at Colorado in 1942.

The game was spirited, violent and inconclusive.

Neither team scored.

The ‘Mosquito Bowl’

Spicer intercepted a pass on the last play of the game.

“It was two hands above the waist,” Spicer said of the rules last week from his home in Park Ridge, Ill., “but it could be a two-handed jab to the shoulder, guts or knees. It was fun!”

Bergman said, “We hadn’t gotten to practice much, and that’s why it was a 0-0 game, even with all the talent we had.”

John McLaughry, a former Brown University star and ex-New York Giant in the 4th Marines, served as a playing assistant coach and played next to Spicer in the backfield. He and his 4th Regiment teammates wore light green T-shirts and dungarees, a better choice than the 29th’s shorts.

“It didn’t get out of hand,” McLaughry said recently from his home in Providence, R.I. “But it came pretty close.”

McLaughry wrote to his parents the day after the game.

“It was really a Lulu, and as rough hitting and hard playing as I’ve ever seen,” he said in the letter. “As you may guess, our knees and elbows took an awful beating due to the rough field with coral stones here and there, even though the 29th did its best to clean them all up. My dungarees were torn to hell in no time, and by the game’s end my knees and elbows were a bloody mess.”

In the letter, McLaughry said the stars were Dave Schreiner and Bob Herwig, a lineman at California in the mid-1930s. Bergman said Herwig was best-known among the men for being the husband of Katherine Windsor, author of the controversial, banned-in-Boston historical novel, “Forever Amber.” Herwig originally was ticketed to be one of the two game officials and was listed as such on the program. He couldn’t resist playing.

Sgt. Harold T. Boian, a Marine Corps combat correspondent who later became advertising director for the Denver Post, wrote a dispatch that was distributed by United Press and ran in many newspapers. Because of wartime secrecy, his story began:

“SOMEWHERE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC – (Delayed) – (U.P.) – Tropical heat and the lack of equipment failed to stop the leathernecks of the Sixth Marine division when they decided it was football time back home. They arranged the Mosquito Bowl football classic.”

Boian listed many of the well-known players in the game. He didn’t mention Hank Bauer, who spelled Spicer at quarterback, a blocking position in the single wing. Bauer came to the Marines from East St. Louis (Ill.) High School and would go on to fame as a major-league baseball player, and as a manager.

Survivors don’t remember it being called the “Mosquito Bowl” at the time, and that name wasn’t used on the program.

Because the game was a tie, all wagers were “pushes.”

Bergman and the Sixth Division continued training, then left Guadalcanal for Okinawa, in the Ryukyu Islands, about 400 miles south of Japan.

“I remember that just as we were getting ready to load on our landing craft, one P-38 (fighter plane) flew over us and I felt like I could reach up and touch it,” Bergman said. “I’ve never forgotten that.”

Part of a multiservice command operating as a Tenth Army expeditionary force, the Marines went ashore on the western beaches of Okinawa on Easter, April 1, 1945. The landings were unopposed. The Japanese would make their stands elsewhere.

Battle for Sugar Loaf Hill

The 29th Marines first moved up to the northern end of the island, roughly 65 miles long.

“The only men we lost were from mines and booby traps in caves,” Bergman said. “We lost our machine gun officer and mortar officer going in one of the caves. But then we came back to the lower third, and that’s where all the trouble was.”

In the battle for Sugar Loaf Hill, Murphy and Mears both were hit on May 15.

The Tenth Army’s official Okinawa combat history, published three years later, said Murphy first ordered “an assault with fixed bayonets” against Japanese forces.

“The Marines reached the top and immediately became involved in a grenade battle with the enemy,” the combat historians wrote. “Their supply of 350 grenades was soon exhausted.

“Lieutenant Murphy asked his company commander, Capt. Howard L. Mabie, for permission to withdraw, but Captain Mabie ordered him to hold the hill at all costs. By now the whole forward slope of Sugar Loaf was alive with gray eddies of smoke from mortar blasts, and Murphy ordered a withdrawal on his own initiative. Covering the men as they pulled back down the slope, Murphy was killed by a fragment when he paused to help a wounded Marine.”

A Marine correspondent wrote of Murphy’s death at the time. That story was carried in many U.S. newspapers in May. It had Murphy making multiple trips to help carry the wounded to an aid station before he was hit as he rested. It added: “Irish George staggered to his feet, aimed over the hill and emptied his pistol in the direction of the enemy. Then he fell dead.”

Said Bergman, “One of the men in his platoon told me he pulled out his pistol and unloaded it.”

In the battle, 49 of the 60 men in Murphy’s platoon were killed or wounded.

Also on May 15, Mears’ platoon was approaching Sugar Loaf when he felt a flash of pain.

“They said it was a machine gun, and it was one bullet through my thigh,” Mears said.

Mears was evacuated to an airfield that night, then flown to Guam the next day, where he heard of Murphy’s death.

“Oh, that one was really bad,” he said. “He was just such a terrific guy. That was a real low blow.”

Mears paused, then added, “But there were so many of them …”

Suddenly, Bergman was the only tentmate remaining in the battle.

“Then all the outfits got hit pretty hard,” Bergman said. “Our company went up with others on the 18th and 19th (of May), took the hill, and stayed there. The Japs were beat up pretty good by then, and we got good tank support.

“By that last night on Sugar Loaf, I was the executive officer. I organized a couple of guys to carry ammunition and stuff to different companies up there that night. We took guys down to the first-aid tent, not so many of the wounded, but several who cracked up from the stress of the whole deal.”

In the Bronze Star citation, Maj. Gen. Shepherd said the Coloradan “organized carrying parties and supervised the distribution and delivery (of supplies) to all three companies throughout the night. When time permitted, 1st Lieut. Bergman visited the troops on the line, exposing himself to enemy fire, speaking to many, reassuring and encouraging them during the enemy’s intense counterattacks.”

U.S. forces held the hill.

Spicer, the former Colorado player in the 4th Regiment, was wounded twice on Okinawa. He suffered a shrapnel wound in the arm, but was back in the battle at the end.

“We were coming north after cleaning up the bottom of the island,” he said. “I jumped over a ditch and found a bunch of Japanese soldiers lying there. I guess somebody threw a grenade at me. That’s how I lost my eye.”

Spicer said that so matter-of-factly. “That’s how I lost my eye.”

‘Part of the game plan’

By July 2, when the campaign was declared over, 12 players in the Football Classic had died on Okinawa.

“It was just part of the game plan,” Bergman said, shrugging and summoning a sports analogy for war, reversing the usual practice. “We knew it was going to happen, and it did happen.”

After the island was secure, Bergman visited Murphy’s grave at the Sixth Marine Division Cemetery.

They were “only” a dozen among 2,938 Marines killed or missing in action on Okinawa. U.S. Army dead and missing numbered 4,675.

Many of the survivors, including Bergman, were ticketed to serve in an invasion of Japan. Bergman was given a “G-2” summary of the Sixth Marine Division’s strategy on Okinawa. In the letter on the first page from Maj. Gen. Shepherd, dated Aug. 1, 1945, the Sixth Division’s commanding officer declared: “I believe that the lessons learned at so dear a price on (Okinawa) should be published and distributed for the benefit of combat units who will land again on Japanese soil.”

New President Harry S. Truman approved the use of atomic bombs against Japan, and they were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August.

“We were real happy it was going to end the war,” Bergman said. “Before that, we knew we were going to go to the mainland.”

Instead, the invasion of Japan was unnecessary after the September surrender, and Bergman’s unit drew occupation duty in China.

Spicer returned to Boulder, lettered three more seasons for the Buffaloes at guard and was the team captain in 1948. Incredibly, he did it with one eye. After a long career in the banking business, he retired in 1989.

In 1946, Bergman returned to Fort Collins and earned his master’s degree. He went into coaching at Fort Lewis College in Durango, then moved to Mesa College in Grand Junction in 1950. He coached the Mesa football and baseball teams, and the baseball team three times was the runner-up in the national junior college tournament – an event Bergman helped Grand Junction land as the annual host. He retired from coaching in 1974, and from the faculty in 1980. He was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1995.

Bergman often thinks about his Marine buddies.

About those who survived the war. And about those who didn’t.

POSTSCRIPT:
Bus Bergman died on March 28, 2010 in Grand Junction.
Bob Spicer died in April 2006 in Park Ridge, Ill.

Colorado junior forward Xavier Johnson will be among 13 men’s basketball players on a Pac-12 all-star team that will tour China in August, the conference announced Friday.

Johnson averaged 12 points and 5.9 rebounds for the 23-11 Buffaloes and will be one of the highest-profile players on the team, along with Utah junior forward Jordan Loveridge (14.7, 7.0), Washington junior guard Andrew Andrews (12.3, 3.9) and Washington State senior guard DaVonté Lacy (19.4, 4.2).

The Pac-12 squad will be the league’s first traveling all-star team since men’s and women’s representatives played in Japan in 1996. The conference stated that this tour is part of the league’s “globalization initiative” to support Pac-12 schools in “international outreach efforts, build their brands in an important market, and provide quality educational and cultural exchange experiences for student-athletes.”

Utah head coach Larry Krystkowiak will direct the team which includes players from 10 of the conference’s 12 teams.

The Pac-12 squad will play four games, including three three against teams from the Chinese Basketball Association. That includes the Shanghai Sharks, who are owned by eight-time NBA All-Star Yao Ming.

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Nine years, in fact, since CSU football had one of its Mountain West games on ESPN or ESPN2.

On Thursday, the Mountain West released its schedule of nationally televised football games for the 2014 season and it includes Colorado State’s Sept. 6 conference opener at Boise State on ESPN2. Kickoff will be 8:15 p.m. in Boise.

Also announced: Two CSU home games will be televised nationally: Oct. 18 vs. Utah State at 5 p.m. on CBS Sports Network and Nov. 8 vs. Hawaii on one of the ESPN family of networks, with the kickoff to be announced at a later date.

Also on Thursday, the MW announced that Colorado State’s road games Oct. 11 at Nevada (8:30 p.m.) and Nov. 1 at San Jose State (5 p.m.) will be televised on CBS Sports Network.

Kivon Cartwright after one his six 2013 touchdowns, this one against Texas-El Paso. Hyoung Chang, Denver Post

My story on the Colorado State Rams heading into Tuesday’s opening of spring practice is in the Sunday paper and online here.

Here’s some additional material:

— Despite the departure of Kapri Bibbs, who rushed for 1,741 yards last season as a redshirt sophomore before declaring himself eligible for the NFL draft, CSU still has Donnell Alexander, who gained 428 yards, returning at running back.

“I’m a guy who historically has played three backs,” said McElwain, who came to CSU after a stint as offensive coordinator at Alabama. “It’s one of those deals where there’s one who might end up getting more carries, but at the same time, you need to keep them fresh. In our case, we’re going to experiment a little bit there, too, bringing Jasen Oden over from the defense. He played running back in both high school and prep school, and he’s a guy we’re going to take a look at. And we have some young guys and I know I’m excited see get off that scout team field and get an opportunity to go prove themselves and play.”

Oden is a junior from Buffalo, who also attended North Carolina Tech before coming to Fort Collins.

LAS VEGAS — An All-American in 1963 as a senior, Ken Charlton was named as Colorado’s representative for this year’s induction into the Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Hall of Honor.

Charlton battled through a history of knee problems to help lead Colorado to back-to-back Big Eight Conference championships and two NCAA Championship berths during his CU career. He still ranks 12th in the program’s history in career scoring and rebounding.

Joining Charlton in this year’s class as honorees during the Pac-12 Tournament are:

LAS VEGAS — Colorado freshman swingman Tre’Shaun Fletcher played only three minutes Wednesday in Colorado’s 59-56 victory over Southern Cal — all in the first half.

But allowing Fletcher to get his feet wet in the Pac-12 Tournament opener could be important to Colorado for the remainder of the postseason.

The 6-foot-7 Fletcher had been out since Jan. 12, when he injured his left knee in a loss at Washington — just minutes after the Buffs’ star point guard, Spencer Dinwiddie, suffered a season-ending ACL tear of his left knee late in the first half.

Colorado State won’t begin its spring practice schedule until Tuesday, March 25. That’s more than two weeks later than some schools, including Colorado, which began its spring sessions Friday.

CSU’s Green-and-Gold Spring Game will be April 19.

“I like to start a little later because I don’t want to have spring practice interrupted by spring break,” CSU coach Jim McElwain told me Thursday. “I think you can lose a little bit (of momentum) when you have to stop and then start up again because of spring break.”

Colorado State is coming off an 8-6 season capped by a come-from-behind 48-45 victory over Washington State at the Dec. 21 New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque.

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Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.